| Instructor: Philip Holden, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature,
NUS |
Week 3 (2): Setting, Terms for Filmic Narrative
Read the following texts:
Bateyads SIA Showcase
View the videos Journey, Around the World, Children Venice, and enter the Archive to view Snowledge, Children Arctic and The World of the Singapore Girl. Follow this link if you are having problems viewing the videos
Chatman, "Existents," from Story and Discourse
Reread the section on "Setting" (139-145).
Turner, "Film Languages."
Reading Strategies and Preparation
First view the videos and note down your responses to them. In class, we'll concentrate in particular on Journey and Around the World
Read over Chatman's section on "Setting" again: while not directly relevant to visual media such as television, it may stimulate your thinking
Now read Turner's’s "Film Languages." You may wish to follow the guidelines suggested for reading critical and theoretical essays. Again, try to identify key points and terms, and questions that you have.
Preparatory Writing
Write a one or two paragraph answer (100-200 words or so) to any one of the six questions below, and post it to the bulletin board.
1. Break either of the two advertisements up into separate shots, and list them chronologically. If each of the shots is a signifier, in Turner's terms, what "signified" does each shot convey? What overall effect is produced by these different signifiers?
2. Re-read Turner's section on "The camera" (59-64). Describe any particular element(s) of shots or camera work (e.g. close up, long shot) which seem important to you in either Journey or Around the World, and indicate the effect they produce.
3. Would you say that story or discourse predominates in the advertisements? Illustrate your answer with specific references to the videos. What do you think your answer to this question tells you about the effect the advertisements might have on their audience?
4. Is the Singapore Girl a character or a setting element in Chatman's terms (see Chatman, "Existents," pp. 139-141)?
5. Imagine that you have to write a screenplay for a new SIA advertisement which will feature a new central figure, the Singapore Boy. Write a brief outline of a potential screenplay (indicate individual shots, giving a sentence description for each). Be prepared to discuss the reasons for the choices of shots you made.
6. Re-read Turner's sections on "Lighting" and "Sound" (64-68). Describe how lighting and sound are manipulated in either Journey or Around the World, and indicate the effect they produce.
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